Palm Beach Opera Enhances Operations to Bring Digital Opera to YMCA, Alzheimer’s Community Care, Long-Term Care Facilities

Palm Beach Opera shares digital, weekly opera performances with West Palm Beach’s YMCA, Alzheimer’s Community Care, and Palm Beach Habilitation Center among others, providing music to some of South Florida’s most isolated individuals.

Palm Beach Opera is partnering with local organizations and long-term care facilities to bring its new digital recital series, “An die Musik,” to those who may not have access to music during this unprecedented time, mobilizing the company’s resident artist training and education and community engagement efforts to best serve South Florida.

“As a member of this community for nearly 60 years, we feel we have a responsibility to help in any way we can during this crisis, and are continuing to ask ourselves ‘what else can we do,’” said General Director David Walker. “Expanding and adapting our community programs, such as our ANIMA program which brings live opera to those who would otherwise not have the opportunity to experience it, as well as engaging our resident artists in more unique ways, is how we believe we can deepen our overall mission as a non-profit organization, and uplift our community more directly at this time when they may be needing it most. Now more than ever, we are continually working to determine how we can enhance our business operations, as well as our music and engagement programming, to help all of us get through this, together.  In addition to wanting to uplift and stay connected with our entire patron base, we also want to do our part to make sure isolated individuals in our community, outside of our immediate opera family, are inspired as well, and know that we also care about them.”

Each week, a returning resident artist from the company’s Benenson Young Artist Program or Bailey Apprentice Artist Program performs and records a selected aria or song, accompanied by a member of Palm Beach Opera’s music staff, in a split-screen video, which also includes subtitles and a personal introduction by the artist. In addition to promoting the series online, Palm Beach Opera sends “An die Musik” videos directly to partnering facilities. The videos are available for the public to stream, download, and share for free at Palm Beach Opera’s Vimeo library, which will be updated each week as new videos are added.

“With providing this digital content directly to these organizations, it allows each of them to share the performances with their constituents in an unlimited amount of options depending on the organization, and even more importantly, allows each viewer to enjoy these performances whenever, and for how many times, they choose,” said Walker.

Currently, participating and interested organizations include the YMCA of the Palm Beaches, VA Medical Center of West Palm Beach, Alzheimer’s Community Care, Lourdes Noreen McKeen Residence, Palm Beach Habilitation Center, and Abbey Delray. Palm Beach Opera is continuing to reach out to local facilities and share the company’s Vimeo library directly, and interested organizations are encouraged to email adina@pbopera.org for more information or for any assistance implementing the videos.

The videos can also be found on Palm Beach Opera’s new PBO@Home page on their website, which serves as a hub for the company’s curated and shared engagement content, and includes resources like Spotify playlists, Zoom and desktop backgrounds, and available streaming opportunities of the week.